In the recent past trade union officers reported that some companies systematically abuse foreign labourers to reduce wages and downgrade working conditions. The promise of a better life and hard cash attracts workers from Romania, Bulgaria, Poland or Lithuania – but more often than not they are surprised by what they find: backbreaking work and degrading conditions with bad or even no pay. The trade union federation (DGB) is therefore opening information centres in the big cities in the frame of the Fair Mobility project, which aims at assisting exploited workers from East Europe.
English: http://www.dw.de/german-unions-back-exploited-migrant-laborers/a-16338601
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.